Little Girl
by the-singular-peep
Summary: She wasn't supposed to be this early. She wasn't, and yet, here she was, not supposed to make it till sunrise. But Owen had other plans for this little one if it was the last thing he did - once he saw her little blue stripe, there was no going back. [JURASSIC WORLD. COMPLETE. RAPTOR MOM AND BABY BLUE.]


She wasn't supposed to be this early.

2:57 AM, April 19, 2013.

He received the call at 2:57 AM, April 19, 2013..

Owen had never felt so panicked.

 _There's nothing we can do,_ they had said. _They'll only live for a few hours, at best._

Owen hated them for saying that. Before the phone call had ended, he had dropped his cell and was pulling on his pants before racing to the lab on his bike. The wind chilled his face even in the nearly sweltering Costa Rican heat, but that wasn't the only reason he felt cold.

The girls were due in two weeks. That's what they had promised him. Five healthy, bouncing baby raptors were due to hatch on May 6, big enough to survive out of the egg but still in need of guidance. Five little girls, Bravo, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, and Charlie, all colored and bred specifically so they could be told apart.

Of course, Owen didn't agree with the scientists at InGen. In fact, he hated everything about it. It was unnatural, cruel, and, quite frankly, bringing man-eating carnivores back into the world, _especially_ after the last incident, was anything but a good idea. On top of that, bringing _Owen_ into the project was even less of a good idea. He was a Navy SEAL. Well, a former Navy SEAL. He had been through boot camps and hardships enough to last a life time. It had hardened him to the soul and made him more tired than anyone could ever imagine. And instead of letting him live on in peace, Owen was called for this "special" mission. Of course, the benefits were fantastic - healthcare, a place to stay, promised early retirement, free beer on weekends - it sounded fantastic on paper. More than fantastic, even - Owen was ecstatic to start.

Until he fully learned what his job would be. He knew he'd be training animals. That much was clear, and when he got to the park, they started him with a brood of newly hatched triceratops babies. It sounded like a joke at first, but Owen had been trained in this. A life long interest in pack behavior and zoology, he was ready on the first day. He was told to help the babies learn to be calm around humans, for a - and he couldn't believe his ears when he heard it - a _petting zoo._ Owen hadn't bonded with them at all, had simply done his job and collected his pay. His next project was similar, with a group of three young Pachycephalosauruses. Train, get payed, drink beer. It was a great, stress free life.

For two years, Owen kept that up. Until, one day, he was informed of his true purpose. He had been the one being trained, in a sense - for something much bigger. Much more dangerous. Much scarier than herbivores.

Velociraptors. Five of them. The smartest animals anyone had ever heard of; most cunning, most intelligent, most vicious. Owen nearly quit before he realized he had nothing to live for outside of the park anymore. It looked like they were going through with the plan with or without him, anyways - the least he could do was attempt the job. If he got eaten, he got eaten. Oh well. If he didn't, he still got all the benefits. Healthcare. Retirement. Housing. Insanely high pay. Beer.

Owen shrugged and agreed to the plan. He signed the new contract, stored the new information in the back of his mind. Continued living his life. In six months, he would be training five little raptors. He was scared sh**less to say the least, but whatever. It'd probably be fine. Days and days past, and Owen tried very hard not to think about it. In the back of his mind, without it telling the rest of him, he was becoming more excited as time went on. He didn't really want to care about the project, but he did. He denied it extensively, but at some point the denial had to come to an end,

When he arrived at the nursery on April 19th, 2013, only one thought was going through his mind.

 _My girls._

Bravo was set to have a blue stripe down her back. Delta was set to be a startling green, Echo a rustic orange, Foxtrot a dark charcoal, and little Charlie a pale green with darker stripes.

Foxtrot was dead before she even hatched fully. Owen knew it the second he stepped in and a coated nurse pushed past him, medical mask strapped on, and an impossibly tiny, placenta covered, black raptor limp in her arms.

It was whatever before. Before, the man couldn't have cared less about the project. If this had been four weeks ago, he would have shrugged it off, but not now, not today. Not so close to time. The second Owen saw her… He couldn't breathe. She had been a real, living creature. He could see that, and he wasn't heartless. She was just so small, so helpless. She hadn't even been given a chance to live, to fight like she was meant to. She was dead seconds after coming into the world.

Owen was ready to quit his job. Fu*k the benefits. Fu*k the stable job. Fu*k the beer, he couldn't take this. He had a life to live, a life to live elsewhere, without impossibly tiny babies - babies that weren't even dinosaurs at this point - dying before his eyes.

And then he saw her. Blue stripe and all, Bravo was curled in on herself, cupped perfectly in an older gentleman's large gloved hands. And she was _squirming._

The room was a flurry of noise and machines and aggravated cries of failure, but all Owen could see was the raptor. He heard a woman's voice buzzing in his ear, but he barely listened.

"We don't know how the others haven't hatched. There was a small earthquake - those are common and we prepared for them, but…"

 _My girls._

"Foxtrot is already deceased, and Bravo is well on her way. The other three seem to be in good condition - nothing has stirred, thank the heavens. You have no need to worry, ."

Owen pushed past her.

"Shut up. Let me see her."

"Sir, I-"

" _Let me see her."_

Technically, as their handler, he had the qualifications to hold her. And it wasn't as if he'd kill her or expose her to any germs, because she was on her way out anyways. The buzzing woman nodded to the older man, and he gently passed Bravo into Owen's hands.

She was so small, so fragile, so dependent. So innocent and undeserving of this world.

Own had never wanted kids. He was okay with them, that was true - he babysat a lot, especially as a teenager, but he never wanted them. He still didn't. And yet…

Something within him changed. Something clenched deep within his heart when he saw this minuscule little creature, this minuscule little _baby_ who was taking in rapid little breaths with tiny little nostrils, who was twitching and whimpering in the smallest way possible, who was _his._

That had been part of the project all along. He knew it in his head as well as his heart. The contract had read in plain language that they would imprint on him, and Owen knew the importance of that in training a wild animal. He was an expert at it; that's why he was chosen for this project, and that meant he knew what imprinting would do to his human heart. Owen had known all along that these girls would be _his_ , but he just hadn't realized it yet.

Now he did. And now he was about to lose one of _his_ if he didn't do something. The lump in his throat tightened as the velociraptor cried out a high, shrieking honk. Owen knew the pitch from his studies. Dr. Hammond had been very specific about the babies in his entries to the early database, and, even if things had later gone awry, the first moments of every creature's life had been flawless.

 _Help, Mommy. Help, help!_

Owen wasn't thinking at that point and he reached down to stroke her placenta covered cheek. She honked in response and he smiled through tears he didn't know were in his eyes.

"Hey there, baby blue. Hey, my little Bravo." He was moving before he could process what was going on, and had wet a cotton pad in the sink before wiping away the gunk covering Bravo's form.

"Sir, there's no point, please, she's barely fully formed. It's not possible for her to live." Buzzy Woman said, and it sounded like she had repeated it once or twice already. She reached out for the baby and Owen ignored her, cleaning the infant delicately with the cloth.

"It's not possible for her to even exist, so shut your face and let me do my job." The man went back to dabbing around the baby's yet-to-open eyes. "Shh, baby blue, it's okay." He crooned. The faculty seemed to have backed off at this point - it wasn't like they expected this untrained man's cleaning to change the outcome. Instead, they went back to checking and securing the rest of the clutch.

When the rest of the staff departed the nursery, Owen stayed. He didn't know how long it had been, but by the time he woke up, he was sitting in the floor against the cabinet, and a tiny and incredibly still thing was wrapped in his shirt up next to his chin.

The night came back to him in a blur, and he nearly panicked - he had lost two of his girls before he had even met them. Foxtrot. Bravo. Gone before they had a chance. It almost came to be too much before he felt something touching his chest. It itched.

It _burned._

Owen yelped and sat up in a blur, banging his head painfully against the underside of the sink. A string of curses escaped his mouth before he unbuttoned his shirt immediately to see what had hurt him so.

The first thing he saw was blood.

The second things he saw were two golden eyes, staring up at him.

"B…Blue?" Owen said in a hoarse, unbelieving voice. Bravo was long forgotten - this little girl's presence had lit his world up like a bright blue sky after a hurricane.

He received a tiny honk.

 _Mommy._

A day past. Two. Three. By day four, Blue was past the point of life or death.

It astonished the scientists, who were positive she wouldn't make it. Foxtrot had definitely not made it - the first to be born and the first to go. They knew Bravo would follow suit. But.. She didn't.

She became known as the Miracle Baby around the lab. Some would refer to her as "the Beta," while others would indulge in the nickname she was given from her miraculous survival, even going as far as to joke that Owen's tears had brought her back from the dead.

Owen insisted on raising her himself, and no one could argue. The man had defied the laws of death; the least they could do was let him keep the baby in his bungalow after she was fully recovered. As long as he signed to move them into the appropriate Paddock before full maturity, he was good to go.

Blue was terribly sick after that first day; weak, little, hungry at the same time as nauseous. Her first two weeks were a flurry of nasty medicines and heat lamps and tummy aches, but also of Owen. Care-taker. Mommy. Alpha. _Hers._

Owen held her daily. He was the only one allowed to bath her, or sleep with her in his arms, or stay overnight. The two were never seen apart, much to the nursery staff's amusement. They teased Owen daily about being a daddy, and oh, how cute his little daughter the miracle baby was. Owen didn't pay attention to them. All of his attention was on the little bundle of shrieks and honks and chirps in his arms, the impossibly tiny baby who had won over his heart.

Exactly at six months, the others hatched. The Scientists had made sure to keep them delicately monitored and all precautions were taken to keep them exactly on schedule. Delta first, then sixteen minutes later Echo, and, finally, after an additional hour, Charlie. Blue quickly started showing her dominance, but at this point, it was just by crowing at them from the safety of Owen's arms, as if to say, " _Look, I'm the beta! I'm big and strong and up higher than you!"_

By this point, Blue was still smaller than her sisters - however tiny she may be, she was no longer a sickly tiny. In time, she would grow to be the biggest. She was the beta - from birthright as well as personality. She loved her sisters, took care of them, played with them. But most of all, she kept Owen as _hers._ The others accepted him, too, but not as quickly - not as willingly. Later, yes. In time, Owen was respected as Alpha - even as daddy. But in the beginning, he was Blue's - he had been crucial in her development, in her strength, in her life. He had loved her when everyone passed her off as too far gone. He had been her rock. She couldn't ever forget that.

The first was called many things - Bravo, Beta, Raptor One, Miracle Baby, Bitey, Grumpy - but to Owen, she was always just Blue. His Blue sky after a rainy day. His Blue river after a week without water. His little girl.

* * *

 **Maybe expect more for JW, maybe not. But I really liked writing this one, and I love Owen and his little girls. Review if you wanna! 3**


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